Sunday, March 31, 2013

Easter Sunday

Easter
Sunday

The Risen Lamb
Assumption Church, Fairfield CT
Click to enlarge*

The Church uses many
different readings on Easter. The Vigil Mass has seven readings from the Old
Testament; St. Paul's famous letter to the Romans--"Christ raised from the
dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over Him:" and St. Luke's
account of the empty tomb. "Why do you seek the living one among the dead?
He is not here, but he has been raised." In the afternoon Mass we will
have the account of the risen Lord's appearance to the disciples on the road to
Emmaus.

This morning's Mass, however,
begins with a reading from the Acts of the Apostles. Peter is preaching.
Remember how prominently Peter appeared in the readings during Holy Week. Last
Sunday he told Jesus that he would follow Him to prison, even to death. But our
Lord predicted that Peter would deny Him three times before the cock crows.
Peter's subsequent denial is one of the few things reported in all four
gospels.

Today it's a different Peter.
He gives as good an account of the life and work of Jesus as you will find
anywhere. Then he bears witness to His Resurrection,

This
man God raised on the third day and granted

that
He be visible...to us,...

who
ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead.

Finally, he makes the claim
"that everyone who believes in Him will receive forgiveness of sins
through His name."

However, it's easy to imagine
that Peter might have felt differently after the death of Jesus. He didn't know
how the story was going to come out.What was there to believe? As St. John says
in today's gospel, "they did not yet understand the Scripture that He had
to rise from the dead." Not only had his Lord been brutally tortured and
killed, but Peter had also turned his back on Jesus. He especially could have
no hope of a resurrection or new day.Wouldn't Peter think that his own sin, his own lack of faith could never
be forgiven?

Then Mary Magdalene comes
rushing in on the first Easter Sunday morning to tell them that the tomb is
empty. Fearing that the Lord's body had been stolen Peter and John race to the
tomb only to find the burial cloths neatly rolled up with no evidence of foul
play. St. John tells us that "he saw and believed." St. Luke tells us
that Peter was "amazed."

Is this why we're all here
today on this Easter Sunday morning? Are we all here today to peer inside the
empty tomb? The empty tomb itself means nothing. As St. Luke said last night we
will not find our Lord among the dead. It's His appearances that matter. Over
the next fifty days we'll hear about all of His appearances. He'll appear to
Mary Magdalene in the garden; to the disciples on the road to Emmaus; to the
Apostles in the upper room; to doubting Thomas; to the fishermen in Galilee;
and to countless other witnesses. Finally, His Holy Spirit will come upon them
at Pentecost..

As we listen to these
witnesses we'll have to examine our own belief. After all, St. Paul said that
"if Christ is not risen, our faith is in vain." In other words if
Christ is not risen, there will be no resurrection for us. However, maybe some
of us feel like we're in the same position as Peter. Maybe doubts have crept
in, maybe we're too secure, maybe something has caused us to deny our Lord and
turn our backs on Him.

The only way to rekindle our
faith is to act differently. We have to realize that like the Apostles we are
called to be witnesses of the Risen Christ. St. Paul calls us the
"yeast" that leavens the dough. In our own little way each of us is
called to bring Christ to each other. Last week during the reading of the
Passion, our Lord said to Peter;

Simon,
Simon, behold Satan has demanded

to
sift all of you like wheat,

but
I have prayed that your own faith may not fail;

and
once you have turned back,

you
must strengthen your brothers.

The little Albanian nun who
became Mother Teresa did not wait for someone else to pick up that little
deserted child in the street and bathe his sores. She saw the Risen Christ in
him and in all the others she helped. Did the young Polish priest who became
John Paul II ever imagine when he took his first vows that he would bring the
Risen Christ to more people than all the previous Popes put together?

The word "Easter"
comes from a Germanic goddess of spring. Latin peoples use the word pasqua from
the Jewish pasch or passover. When the Germanic peoples were converted the
Church wisely associated the word for Springtime with the feast of the Risen
Lord. All around us new life is springing from the dead of winter. And so, as St.
Paul says,